Dhaka, June 13 -- Despite a five-year implementation window, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has made limited progress in terms of infrastructure development under the Covid-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness project.

Of the planned 500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds to be set up across 50 district headquarters hospitals (10 beds each), ICU services have become operational in only 13 districts.

Similarly, no progress has been made in establishing 16 paediatric intensive care units (P-ICUs) across 14 medical college hospitals, Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute, and the Institute of Child and Mother Health in Matuail.

The situation is equally concerning in the case of obstetric intensive care units (...